If you have download the latest version of Windows Server 2016 you can create a USB stick to install it on a physical server. This blog goes through how you create a USB Stick for Windows Server 2016.
For UEFI Systems:
- The at least a 8GB USB drive has to be formatted in FAT32
- The USB needs to be GPT and not MBR
- Copy all files from the ISO to the USB drive
This is it, and here is how you do it:
First plugin your USB drive to your computer. The USB drive should be bigger than 6GB.
Open a CMD prompt or PowerShell using the Run as Administrator option and open diskpart. Now you can do list all this by using
list disk
Select the USB disk, in my case this was disk 1
select disk 1
Clean the disk. Be careful this will remove all files and partitions on the USB media.
clean
Now convert it to GPT
convert gpt
Create a new primary partition. But make sure the partition is not greater than 16GB otherwise it can be formatted with FAT32.
create partition primary # If your USB drive is bigger than 16GB use the following command create partition primary size=16000
Format the partition with FAT32
format fs=FAT32 quick
Assign a drive letter to the volume
assign letter=k
now you can exit the diskpart and copy all files from the Windows or Windows Server to the USB drive and boot it. This works with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 or even Hyper-V Server in the same editions.
For MBR systems:
- The at least a 8GB USB drive has to be formatted in FAT32
- The USB needs to be MBR
- Partition need so be set active
- Copy all files from the ISO to the USB drive
This is it, and here is how you do it:
First plugin your USB drive to your computer. The USB drive should be bigger than 6GB.
Open a CMD prompt or PowerShell using the Run as Administrator option and open diskpart. Now you can do list all this by using
list disk
Select the USB disk, in my case this was disk 1
select disk 1
Clean the disk. Be careful this will remove all files and partitions on the USB media.
clean
Create a new primary partition. But make sure the partition is not greater than 16GB otherwise it can be formatted with FAT32.
create partition primary # If your USB drive is bigger than 16GB use the following command create partition primary size=16000
Format the partition with FAT32
format fs=FAT32 quick
Set Active
active
Assign a drive letter to the volume
assign letter=k
now you can exit the diskpart and copy all files from the Windows or Windows Server to the USB drive and boot it. This works with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 or even Hyper-V Server in the same editions.
Important:
If Install.wim is larger than 4GB, you cannot copy the file to the drive, because of theFAT32 based partition limitation. The solutions for this is to split the wim file into smaller files.
split wim file using dism (you may have to change the drive letters):
dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:e:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:k:\sources\install.swm /FileSize:4096
